


Alexandria

by euphorbic



Series: Angel of Cities [3]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Character Death, Gratuitous Imagery, Mild Gore, Non-Linear Narrative, Original Character(s), Other, Sociopathic!Shaw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-19
Updated: 2013-02-19
Packaged: 2017-11-29 19:30:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/690605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/euphorbic/pseuds/euphorbic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He feels he shouldn't allow him to use his Name, but the Alexandrian will do things for Emma Frost that he shouldn't, and she wants Sebastian Shaw to put sound to his binding Name.</p><p>[TW: Character Death]</p><p> </p>
            </blockquote>





	Alexandria

**Author's Note:**

> This piece has been overhauled from the previous one posted on Tumblr. Also, though I've tagged the Alexandrian (Emma's Angel) as an original character, I took his concept from _Goetia; the Lesser Key of Solomon_.
> 
> Precursor to [Butterfly](http://archiveofourown.org/works/719706).

_Alexandria_

 

The Power of Alexandria does not care for Sebastian Shaw. The man is an insect, but the man gives Emma things that the Power has not so Sebastian Shaw is allowed to come and go. It is a mistake, he thinks, but a willing one, for what danger is there but those that are slightly fascinating and thrilling? What if Emma were to become with child? Would he double-imprint? What would that be like? Complicated.  _Interesting_.

There is also the not inconsiderable fact that he enjoys Emma’s projections of pleasure when the two humans are known, each to the other.

He is not so gross a lover as Sebastian Shaw. He wants an opportunity to demonstrate this to Emma in exquisitely carnal detail. Unfortunately, he is a Power that follows old rules, mainly because rules are a pleasurable intellectual game. Sooner or later, he thinks he’ll work this puzzle out and then Sebastian Shaw will fall away like bark from a lightning-struck tree.

He feels he should not allow him to use his Name, but the Alexandrian will do things for Emma Frost that he shouldn’t, and she wants Sebastian Shaw to put sound to his binding Name. And so he condescends to have his Name bandied about on the lips of an unclean mouth. He tells himself that he has made many mistakes since he Manifested; this is not the alpha nor is it the omega. Mistakes are a vanity of his he thinks are not made without his awareness. Mistakes are willful diversions much like human theatrical arts. His mistakes are arias of the firmament, complete with comedic and tragic elements.

All the same, if he had not been Manifest for so long, he would not have done. So, when Sebastian unexpectedly cuts Emma’s ties to her mortal coil and says ‘Ronové’ the Power is beyond distraught. Even as Emma’s white body unfurls half a dozen blooming exit wounds, as she crumples before the Linguistic section’s huge fireplace, Ronové is simultaneously exploding in rage and imploding in absolute grief and disbelief.

He resists his Name.

He reaches for Emma, but his Emma Frost is smoke over his face and fingers. Her blood spills across the hearth and drips down from the white mantel. He breathes in the smoke, willing her into him in some final way, in his growing discord and confusion. For once, he does not consider his regard for fine clothing when the impulse moves him to kneel down and spread his gloved fingers in her blood. She is absent from his breast, from his mind, from his Manifestation entire.

The mistake of his choosing is the mistake of his undoing. Of Emma’s undoing. His Emma, who he loves, who he wants to know, who is a brilliant, refracting part of him. His vanity has unraveled her. He has never felt so empty in his long existence; her absence is a gravitational collapse within his essence.

When the man again says, ‘Ronové’ the Power’s teeth gnash, his long black hair snaps. The edges of his dark clothing whip about and he snarls like an animal. There are Words in his guttural utterances that should shatter every bone in the man’s body, but they do not. The man’s eyes narrow and his lips stretch in pleasure at the Words. He bids the Power to give him more, that such a paltry show of force doesn’t befit the loss of someone as exquisite as Emma.

The Power strides to the man, his spiritual manifestation so strong that it bleeds into the physical world. His spirit reaches the man before his body does; wings made of liquid red feathers extending over his shoulders. Ronové should be able to kill the man directly for his crime, but living through the vengeance he intends will be much worse. He reaches for the man’s throat and his wingtips bleed about the clean-shaven skin.

‘Ronové.’ The man says.

It is the third time. And in another situation perhaps he could resist past three, but he needs to fill the sucking void within him; the emptiness is too strong.

Against will and sanity, he imprints with the murderer and it is a horror that his vast catalogue of diversions has never seen replicated. Ronové’s essence is wed to the murderer of his beloved, forever to be unrequited. There is the rushing of movement, of bloody feathers, gold, and black. They flow into the man even as the man forcefully imprints on every layer of the Power’s Manifestation.

Sebastian Shaw receives a surfeit of violent physical percussion from Emma’s Angel, even as Ronové is becoming  _his_. He revels in the power, in the sheer destructive energy being unleashed on him. There have been few destructive forces as powerful unleashed on Earth since the apocalyptic wars of the prior age. The energy flooding him is not, he thinks as his mind is overwhelmed, unlike apotheosis.

Around them the Library of Alexandria begins to burn.    


End file.
